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Clayton told ESPN 710 AM’s Kevin Calabro and Jim Moore that Hasselbeck and the Seahawks aren’t close enough to a deal to realistically expect the two sides to come to an agreement before the CBA expires at midnight Eastern time on Thursday.

Listen to the audio here. It’s a wide-ranging interview in which Clayton discusses the Leon Washington signing, the Brandon Mebane situation, the news of Tuesday’s Federal ruling in favor of the NFLPA regarding TV revenue, and a lot more.

But most interesting were Clayton’s remarks about Hasselbeck, who will become an unrestricted free agent once free agency begins.

“There’s not going to be common ground that they will get a deal done by the start of free agency,” Clayton said, citing a source.

Of course, nobody really knows when the free agency period will be. Both the Seahawks and Hasselbeck were insistent during the season that they’d like to get a deal done sooner rather than later, but obviously, Hasselbeck knows what he could command on the free agent market and isn’t likely to settle for a lower salary just to stay in Seattle. He’ll almost certainly want to test free agency if the Seahawks aren’t willing to pay him a salary commensurate with his experience, so it could be quite a while before all of this gets straightened out.